Jekan Thanga

Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

Jekan Thanga heads the Space and Terrestrial Robotic Exploration (SpaceTREx) Laboratory. Jekan has a background in aerospace engineering from the University of Toronto. He worked on Canadarm, Canadarm 2 and the DARPA Orbital Express missions at MDA Space Missions. Jekan obtained his Ph.D. in space robotics at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and did a postdoc at MIT's Field and Space Robotics Laboratory (FSRL).

Jekan is broadly interested in the exploration and utilization of Space, using:

CubeSats and Small Spacecrafts

Swarms/Networks/Constellations of Robots

Field Sensor Networks

His research covers the investigation of fundamental theoretical concepts with simulation using computational tools, culminating with field trials and deployment. His research focuses on developing system design and control technologies, that enables:

Science Instrumentation for Exploration

Authomous Control

Power

Propulsion

Communications

Smart Structures and Deployables

He also teams up with other researchers to apply the latest in space technology to terresterial applications including:

Construction and 3D Printing

Security

Energy Exploration

Environmental monitoring

His team uses multidisciplinary optimization using a combination of conventional, adaptive and machine learning methods resulting in high performance, unconventional design and control solutions that would otherwise not be envisioned by a human designer.

He has authored or co-authored 75+ peer-reviewed publications and is currently the Engineering PI on two CubeSat missions, the US Air Force funded SWIMSat Mission and AOSAT 1, a CubeSat Centrifuge Laboratory. Jekan and his students won a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award in 2016 and a Tech Briefs Top 5 Award in the Aerospace/Defense category for the SunCube FemtoSat platform.

Awards

Tech Briefs Design the Future 2017, Top 5 in Aerospace/Defense

Tech Briefs Magazine, Fall 2017

HeroX (X-Prize Spin-off) CubeSat Challenge Winner

HeroX/ US Military/ NASA, Fall 2017

Frank J. Redd Small Satellite Student Competition Winner (3rd Place)

AIAA/USU Small Satellite Conference, Summer I 2017

Co-author, Best Student Paper and Presentation Award (2nd place) at the 40th AAS Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, 2017